Brutal Stalker - Directors Commentary

From the beginning of our opening sequence we really wanted the scary, spooky theme to come across straight away. That’s why we have credits with a black background and white writing as we felt it helped make the opening sequence seem much more mysterious as the white writing fades out into black. The spooky slow paced low pitch and toned music helps the audience establish that the film is a dark psychological thriller as it is meant to have a spine chilling effect.
Once the mood is set we move onto the first scene of the girl sat in a police interview. The bright white room we feel helps contrast with the flash backs of the girl being chased outside in a dark deserted park.
We tried to make sure the main character look confused and unsure of what she is saying. We see the girl talking to the police interviewer which was originally suppose to have sound on it but as problems occurred during filming and the microphone didn’t pick up the sound and as we didn’t have enough time to re shoot the entire interview scene and the teacher who originally acted as the police interviewer was unavailable. We then had no choice but to do a voice over. We feel the voice over works from the very start as it helps the audience understand what’s going on. Also the voice over is quite dramatic as Rebia who did the voice over did first had to get into character before recording the voice over in order for it to sound as intense and dramatic as we wanted the main characters played by Mariam, feelings to be represented.
The film was originally meant to be a horror but as we started to film we saw it was more confusing and the “stalker” seemed to be more psychotic then scary which made the film scary in the end, as we didn’t want our film to look cliché with a typical chase story line.
The flashbacks we feel help mix up the film as it isn’t in chronological order making it more interesting to watch as the audience will have to pay attention.
We feel the close up on Mariams face when she realises a strange person is following her is a really strong shot to show her emotions in this difficult time. We wanted the audience to feel sympathetic to her and the fearful teary eyed girl before them should enhance the sympathy from the audience towards her.
As we wanted the stalker to be the “evil villain” in the film we wanted the audience to feel scared themselves and even hatred for the character themselves. We feel that the shot of the stalker walking past the camera helps establish what they look like as well as the character looking into the camera. As if they were to look at the audience in an evil manner. It represents the fearlessness of the character as well as a slight cheek of them scaring a young vulnerable girl in broad daylight. We purposely wanted this character to slowly walk and take their time whilst following the girl. It helps show they are relaxed and almost calm about the whole situation, showing they are comfortable with it and it`s not a new situation for them. We feel in this scene alone we learn a lot about this character.
The high angle shot we filmed from above on a nearby bridge we feel helps show the girl in a very vulnerable light. The branches in front of the camera we feel make it look as if the audience if themselves looking from afar, almost as if they were hiding themselves. It makes the surroundings seem much more secluded as she then runs towards a smaller path which then leads to a tunnel the girl tries to hide in.
The black drop with no picture just the sound of the main character screaming we feel also adds a spine chilling shocking element to the opening of our film. It also denotes the girl passing out, as then we finally see the girl passed out in a dark tunnel alongside a stream. The lacks of music alongside the dim lighting and close up of the stalker looking down upon the girl and the eye line match of the girl lying on the floor we feel adds mystery into the film. We wanted the audience to form a negative impression of the stalker and want to feel as if he is quite creepy, as the audience does not know what happened in the short few seconds the picture. We feel the fading out from here grabs the audience’s attention we wanted to keep them guessing to what will happen next.

This last shot of just the victim looking down is a close up shot of just her, and the top half of her.
The fact that she’s looking down shows that she’s clearly upset about something, this therefore makes the audience want to know what actually happened that she “couldn’t remember”

This shot is overlapping with the next shot that further on, (the next scene) creates more suspense within the audience and what’s going to happen to the victim next in this opening. It’s also just a good effect to put in a whole and make the film look better.

This is a extreme long shot, but then over head shot as well at the same time, you can only see the silhouette of the attacker but not the victim, makes the audience aware it’s going to be more suspenseful. You can see the water in the distance, and then the branches from the trees, it creates a good scene from a typical horror/ thriller movie.

This shot establishes what is going on in this scene. The attacker is chasing the victim and the victim doesn’t know what to do or where to go clearly. The scenery around them also adds to the effect that this place is near enough the middle of nowhere, and no help will come for the victim anytime soon. The lighting is all natural as its outside, and there’s nothing covering direct light from coming onto both the victim and the attacker.

This shot is to get the audience to know that the attacker is following the victim through the same place that the victim went through just seconds ago. It’s a long distance shot because we can’t see the attacker’s features or anything, just the silhouette of him/ her going into the bushes. Overall the rainy effect makes this shot a lot better looking and spooky as if something is about to happen.

This shot is a long distance shot, however you can see the attacker slowly walking past to get to the victim. This tells the audience that there is something more to happen as the victim is walking into some bushes and trees, and clearly there will be further more to come.
The lighting of this is just natural yet dimmed out a bit. We took the weather into consideration and thought if we were trying to make it look spooky and rainy then it shouldn’t be too bright.